Trust Members & Trustees

Member

Rob is Executive Headteacher of St. Austin's and St Ignatius Primary Schools and the Trust Standards Officer for the Bishop Konstant Catholic Academy Trust (BKCAT). Prior to this, Rob was Headteacher of St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Dewsbury. Before qualifying as a teacher in 2010, Rob held a number of interesting roles, namely as the Organ Scholar at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Dunedin, New Zealand and latterly as a Lay Clerk at Wakefield Cathedral. Rob’s passion for music has been central to his work in schools and believes that all children should have the opportunity to access high quality education in areas of the curriculum which have too often been squeezed out of the school day.

Member

Mark is a peak performance coach with qualifications in NLP and Hypnotherapy.  He has fifteen years corporate experience with Abbey National and RBS Group with roles in Analysis, Capacity Planning, Quality Control and Customer Service Management.  Mark has thirteen years’ experience running his own small business in Ossett Town Centre, and was founder and previously director of Building Ossett Better Community Interest Company.

Member

Vivien started her career in Business Management before qualifying as a Secondary School Teacher in 1998. She spent seven successful and very enjoyable years teaching a full range of Business Studies courses including Foundation, A Level and Vocational qualifications at Huddersfield New College before moving back into business in 2005.

Vivien’s passion during her teaching career was in mentoring her students to achieve their potential in both their academic and pastoral activities.

A mother of four grown up children Vivien is now the joint owner and Director of two successful businesses and wants to use her spare time to help the Trust to continue to achieve excellent outcomes.

Chair of the Trust Board

John North led three West Yorkshire primary schools as Headteacher for 26 years, becoming a National Leader of Education and leading two schools as Executive Head. He worked as a Primary Education Consultant following Headship, working in a number of schools on school improvement issues, also leading training for staff and governors. As National Consultant for the Trust and Foundation School Partnership, he led seminars across the country for schools interested in becoming foundation schools and took groups of schools through the process to become foundation schools within trusts. His background and experience led to his appointment as Chair of the Interim Executive Board at a West Yorkshire primary school which was in special measures. Holding this position and his work developing governor training courses led him to be appointed as a Facilitator for the National College’s Chair of Governor Training Programme. With his wide range of experience in primary education, he is very pleased to be able to help in the development of the Inspire Partnership Multi-Academy Trust.

Member

Helen is an Author, Coach & Mental Health Facilitator. With over 20 years’ experience working with emotional issues, phobias & traumas, PTSD & Bereavement. She coaches for performance in elite sport & in schools with underperforming students. An Executive coach, looking at performance enhancement with Senior Executives, a qualified Commercial Mediator & Mental Health Facilitator in the workplace.

In 2017, partnering  Aviva Plc she wrote ‘Surviving Me’ – a guide helping individuals with life limiting and changing illnesses to live fully each day & to self-manage their emotional and mental health.

Helen is also a Magistrate, an LA appointed primary school Governor  & was a Non Exec Director for Winsford Youth & Community Forum for 3 years. She volunteers for the Spiritual Care and Chaplaincy Team at St Luke’s Hospice, Cheshire.

Member

Stuart is a Local Business man and owns his own Company. He was a Governor at Gawthorpe Community Academy for over 13 years, 8 of those as Chair. Stuart is passionate about ensuring that schools and academies serve their own individual communities. He is determined to work in his role as a trust member to ensure academies within INSPIRE Partnership MAT achieve the highest standards in order to ensure children are given the best life chances. He sees his role as challenging the leadership team of the Trust.

Trustee

John has worked in the private sector supporting public sector projects for many years and these have included a number of PFI projects involving schools and the leisure industry. John’s had had a range of roles with major companies and has a strong understanding of business practice and the challenges relating to Financial Management. He has served as a school governor and a trustee with an academy trust in the past and he has worked on various subcommittees, including a chair of finance role. John currently is on the local governing board of a Leeds secondary academy.

Trustee (Chair of Finance, Audit & Risk Committee)

Charlie has over five years' experience in professional services with PwC after qualifying as a chartered accountant with KPMG. He has a wide range of experience advising corporates and privately-owned business on all aspects of strategy, mergers and acquisitions and financing.

Trustee (Vice Chair of Trust Board)

Carolyn had over 24 years experience in various aspects of banking, including managerial roles, project managing the launch of the bank’s international branch in Scotland and ensuring compliance of cash management and investment products within the corporate divisions. She has had a life long interest in music and has been qualified as a piano and woodwind instrument teacher since 1999 covering all ages from 6-76! Carolyn is looking forward to bringing her wide range of skills into her role within the Academy and aims to use these to ensure all the children get the best education possible as every child matters.

Trustee

Karen is a communications professional with a passion for education and engagement. She has many years’ experience in the financial services industry, originally in accountancy, with twenty years helping organisations communicate financial wellbeing.

In explaining the complexities of pensions and finances to employees worldwide, Karen became increasingly interested in how people of all ages learn, and the importance of excellent teaching for all children at the start of their educational journey. Having previously served as a governor with a Wakefield primary school, she is thrilled to be a part of the Inspire MAT governance team, initially as a Member and now a Trustee.

Trustee (Chair of Standards and Curriculum Committee)

Karen is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. She has 10 years' experience working in a local authority and a higher education institution but predominantly her work experience has been in a further education college for the last 27 years.

Karen has worked at a senior management level and has had responsibility for Human Resources;
Safeguarding; Organisational Development; Payroll; Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. Recently she has taken on a part time governance role at the College, and therefore, also has a good understanding and awareness of governance issues. Karen hopes to use the skills and experience that she has to benefit the Trust and impact positively on the lives of the children it helps educate.

Trustee

Jane has been an operations professional in the private sector since 2013. Her responsibilities have included helping businesses to meet performance targets, manage budgets, develop policies and procedures, comply with data protection legislation and achieve ISO accreditations in quality and information security.

Previously, Jane worked as a communications consultant, advising corporate clients on financial education for their employees.

Jane is looking forward to utilising her skills in the Trustee role, for the benefit of the children, families and communities that IPMAT serves.